To investigate the association between sarcopenia and overactive bladder (OAB) in a United States adult population from 2011 to 2018, and whether sarcopenia can predict the risk of OAB.

We analyzed data from the 2011–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in a crosssectional study(NHANES) of 8746 participants, of whom 1213 were diagnosed with OAB, we analyzed correlations by sex, age, race, education level, marital status, household income-to-poverty ratio, hypertension, diabetes, strenuous work activity, moderate work activity, strenuous recreational activity, moderate recreational activity, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and uric acid levels using restricted cubic spline plots of dose-response curves, univariate and multivariate Logistic regression. Models based on sex, age, education, household income to poverty ratio, hypertension, diabetes, sarcopenia index, and cotinine were developed and evaluated using Nomogram, calibration curves, receiver operating characteristic curves, and clinical decision curves.

Of the 1213 OAB patients, 388 (32.0%) were male and 825 (68.0%) were female. Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that sarcopenia index was negatively correlated with the prevalence of OAB (OR=0.084, 95% CI, 0.056–0.130, P <0.001;OR=0.456, 95%CI, 0.215–0.968, P= 0.0041). Dose curve analysis of the sarcopenia index and prevalence of OAB showed that the prevalence of OAB decreased significantly with increasing sarcopenia index. Sarcopenia was positively correlated with OAB (OR=2.400, 95%CI, 2.000–2.800, P <0.001;OR=1.46, 95%CI, 1.096 −1.953, P = 0.010). In addition, our model shows that sarcopenia can predict the prevalence of OAB (AUC = 0.750) and has some clinical decision-making implications.

Sarcopenia is positively associated with the risk of OAB in United States adults and can be used as a predictor of OAB prevalence.